


Not-So-Secret Ending

by Righteous_Flame



Category: Night In The Woods (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Humor, Pictures, Post-Game(s), with a bit of Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-22 10:37:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10695297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Righteous_Flame/pseuds/Righteous_Flame
Summary: Sleepovers are fun, right?





	Not-So-Secret Ending

**Author's Note:**

> Tried a bit of an experimental format for this one. I love writing dialogue, but hate writing the in between stuff. What's great about the game is that it's almost entirely dialogue, so I thought this format of using icons would fit the game well. It also works out since characters have very little facial animation anyway. With the added bonus of making it clear who's talking without constantly having to say "she said". It certainly made it more fun for me to look at. Let me know what you think.
> 
> I also decided to add a dash of my own experience with mental illness in here. Another part of the game I love.

"You are so full of shit." 

Under the clear, starry night sky of Possum Springs, in the disheveled and dimly lit bedroom of the Borowski house, there resided the cat and croc duo (the name is a work in progress). Both were on the small bed; Mae laid on her stomach playing Demon Tower on her laptop, Bea reclined by the window, looking at the screen over the cat's shoulder.

"Am not!!! I'm telling you, the secret ending is real! There's some bleeding guy who shows you a bunch of dots, then at the last level you gotta take the skull that corresponds to those dots, then you beat the final boss and BAM secret ending!"

Bea took a deep puff of her ever-present cigarette.

"Uh huh. Right. And you're the only one who knows about this intricate process because...?" 

" _Because_ I heard it from Angus! He knows all sorts about this game. If the wifi wasn't down, I bet I could find tons of proof online!" 

"Pfff, I betcha Angus was yanking your chain. In fact he's probably laughing about it right now, all the way in Bright Harbor. Telling Gregg about that time he pranked the hell out of the gullible Mae." 

"You seriously don't believe me?" 

"Oh I believe you." 

"I believe you're full of shit." 

"You are the worst sleepover guest ever." 

Bea chuckled, clearly enjoying teasing her host. Mae continued mashing the keyboard, furiously attempting to beat this boss and get to the elusive secret ending.

"You'll see! You'll ALL see! I'm gonna... make you... eat those words... and my foot...!" 

As if on cue, the boss promptly sliced our hero to bits, sending her back to the start of the level.

"AGH, COME ON." 

"Man, you kinda suck at this. You've been on the same level for like 30 minutes." 

"I'm bad at things in general!!!!" 

Okay, this is it. This is the one. She made it to the boss room yet again. She pumped herself up for what would surely be a grueling battle aaaaand the boss destroys her instantly.

"FRIGGIN FRUGGING MOTHERFRIGG- I'm done." 

She swiftly closed the laptop and rolled to the other side of the bed, sighing in defeat. Bea took another breath of her cigarette.

"Cool ending." 

"Shut."

There was a moment of awkward silence after that. Mae, laying flat on her back, stared up at the ceiling. Something was gnawing at her. It wasn't the teasing, she knew Bea just likes to mess with her. This was something deeper. As was often the case, it was just one off-hand comment that started a chain reaction of semi-related thoughts. Gregg. Angus. Leaving. Gone. Alone. Scared. Man, thinking sucks. 

"Something bothering you?" 

"Yeah."

"Wanna talk about it?" 

"Ehhhhh...."

Bea took one final puff of her cigarette before snuffing it out in her ashtray. She laid down next to Mae.

"I think you should. I mean, I know I'm the one who usually _didn't_ want to talk about my problems, being the goth ass that I am, but you still persisted. It was... annoying at first. And even though we had some spats... I think talking to you about it really helped me out in the long run. So why don't you let me help _you_ out this time?" 

"Mmmm.... okay, I guess... but it's kinda dark."

"Trust me, I can handle dark." 

There was no denying that. Mae took a deep breath.

"Okay so... you know how my uh... _condition_ can cause violent outbursts and shit?" 

"Mhm." 

"Well... I've been thinking. And worrying. About how, like, whenever it happens, there's no warning. No indication or anything. It just comes outta nowhere and before I know it I'm beating the teeth outta some poor kid during softball practice. Same with college. One day my brain decides to shit itself and suddenly 'Oops! No more college!' In the blink of an eye, everything's ruined. Again. It just... it scares me. For all I know I'm basically a ticking time bomb, and I'm just lucky I haven't exploded on someone I love yet."

"..." 

Tears started welling up in Mae's eyes, but she kept staring at that ceiling as if she didn't even notice. Her breathing got a bit heavier as she clenched her fists.

"I mean shit, maybe its great Gregg and Angus are so far away! At least now I don't have to worry about going savage on them! But no matter where I go, these nightmare eyes are always gonna be with me! I hate it! I hate these eyes! They could end up hurting mom, or dad! God, what if I hurt _you_?! I wouldn't... I can't deal with that! I wanna be with you but you'd be constantly in danger! I'm gonna end up alone forever cause of this freak brain of mine! And- and I- ah-..."

Bea silently reached over and cupped Mae's clenched fist in hers. Mae finally broke her staring contest with the ceiling and turned her gaze towards Bea, who's normally stoic face showed deep concern. At this point the tears were flowing down the cat's face.

"I just... sometimes I feel like a monster, you know? Like that _thing_ in the hole. A nightmare-eyed monster."

With that last comment, Bea sat up and leaned over to Mae and stared deeply into her eyes, a surprisingly serious look on her face. She gently caressed Mae's cheek with her hand, wiping away a tear with her thumb. Her voice, normally blunt and abrasive, was now soft and tender.

"Hey... listen to me. Your eyes are a lot of things. They're big, beautiful, full of life, full of energy. Nightmare isn't on that list." 

Mae went silent, caught off guard by the sudden display of affection. Before she could respond, Bea pulled her into a tight hug.

"You may be a brash, hyper, unpredictable weirdo. But I've _never_ felt unsafe because of you. We've known each other for so long, Mae. And after all we've been through... I trust you. Hell, at this point I trust you more than anyone else in this town." 

"And you know what? I may not be an expert on your condition, but you shouldn't look at yourself as a time bomb. Nah... the fact that you've made it this far proves otherwise. You're a fighter, Mae. Always have been. And I know you'll kick this issue right in it's stupid face." 

A rush of emotion washed over Mae. Unable to say anything, she pressed her face into Bea's shirt and finally let out the sobbing she'd been holding back. Being roughly half Bea's size, she fit snugly in her arms. One of the few perks of being short. Bea patted her back while Mae continued to let everything out.

"It's alright. You're alright. You don't have to worry about being alone. I'm not gonna leave you. There's no one else I'd rather be stuck in this town with. You're... you're so important to me. So don't ever forget we're in this together." 

Mae lifted her head up slightly from the soggy black shirt.

"...Forever?"

"Hehe. Forever."

The crying slowly subsided, replaced by a few sniffles. But Mae still clung tightly to Bea, her breathing slowed back to normal as she relaxed in her embrace. The two laid there on the bed, practically inseparable for the moment. Mae's voice was muffled as she kept her face nestled in Bea's shirt.

"...I love you, Beebee. A lot. I really, really love you a lot..."

Bea rested her jaw on top of Mae's head. A smile spread across her lips. Hearing her say that felt... really good.

"Feeling's mutual. Now how about some sleep? And no more of this monster talk. You're no monster, you're my Maeday. And I wouldn't trade you for anyone in the world." 

"Mhm....."

Sounded like she was falling asleep already, apparently enjoying her scaly security blanket. Seems that they weren't gonna be moving from this position for awhile. Not that Bea minded. She closed her eyes and drifted off, still smiling.

But as the cuddle bugs slumbered, little did they know that two nosy eyes were peering through a crack in the bedroom door. The spies whispered to each other.

"Well would ya look at that." 

"How sweet! I was a bit worried when my little girl wasn't being as loud as usual. Good to know it was just a cuddle puddle." 

"I always knew those two would end up together." 

"Oh please, you did not. You said the same thing about her and Gregg before you realized he was gay." 

"We can't all be perfect, Candy." 

"Whatever." 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The morning sun shone in through bedroom window, stretching a strip of warm light onto the snoozing couple. Their position hadn't changed much since they fell asleep, save for Mae managing to turn herself over. The sunlight tickled Bea's eyes, causing them to flutter open. She looked down at the short black cat she was still clutching in her arms.

"Oh my god we're spooning." 

Bea whispered to herself so as not to wake her partner. She was surprised at how... mushy she got with Mae. This was definitely a new feeling.

"Hm... not bad. I could get used to this..." 

She closed her eyes again. A few more hours of sleep couldn't hurt. No work today anyway.

Unfortunately the sun had different ideas, and ended up shining directly on Mae's face shortly thereafter. Her eyes slowly opened and a sudden realization of her current situation dawned on her.

"OH MY GOD WE'RE SPOONING."

Her revelation was... a bit louder than Bea's. Looks like no sleeping in today.

"That we are." 

"Woah... so all that stuff really happened, right?"

"Myep. Every bit of it." 

"Holy crap. But also, awesome? I just... wow. Did not expect that to happen. Its a lot to process."

"..." 

"..."

"So should we get up, or...?"

"Well now that you've thoroughly ruined the moment, yeah we might as well." 

"Ah shit."

Mae proceeded to roll herself out of bed, fixing her hair despite the fact she pretty much always has bedhead. No such worries for Bea, who hopped out of bed looking pretty much the same as when she fell asleep.

"You owe me a new shirt, by the way. Or at least the dry cleaning." 

"Haha yeah... sorry about that..."

A bit of awkward silence as the two sort of looked each other over.

"So um... last night... does this mean now we're, y'know... g-"

Before she could finish her sentence, a familiar voice yelled from downstairs.

"Mae! Bea! If you're up, we've got breakfast!" 

"Oh thank god. C'mon let's go get some grub!"

It was a welcome break in the awkward tension for both of them. They both eagerly headed downstairs to the kitchen, where four fresh plates of scrambled eggs and bacon waited on the table. Mae's parents were already seated, so the two of them took their seats as well.

"Well now, this is a surprise! Mae's actually up in time for breakfast!" 

"Yeah but I usually make up for it by eating double lunch."

"That explains so much." 

"We're so glad you could stay for breakfast, Bea! And that you managed to wake our sleeping beauty for it too." 

"Thanks for having me, Mrs. Borowski! The food looks great." 

The four of them dug in to their breakfast, exchanging pleasantries and such. Bea munched on some eggs, Mae gulped down a nice glass of milk, everything was just perfect and great and-

"So, you two are an item now, huh? You know, a couple?" 

Bea nearly choked on her fork. Mae sprayed out a mouthful of milk. Luckily onto the floor, not the table.

"Oh dear." 

"Wow, was that a spit-take? A real life spit-take? I didn't know those existed." 

"Dad... you can't just... holy crap... where did that even come from?"

Mae sipped at her milk again in an attempt to smother her coughing fit.

"Well you girls suddenly got very quiet last night, much earlier than usual. So we went up to check on you to make sure everything was okay, but you two were all curled up together in bed so we just thought-" 

And with that the milk came spraying out again.

"Okay I'm not cleaning that up." 

While Mae was busy choking on her own spit, Bea cleared her throat and took it upon herself to answer the blunt question.

"I um... okay wow you saw that huh? Well um... I guess... yeah? Yeah we are. A couple now. As of last night I guess. " 

Mae was too exhausted to even be embarrassed anymore.

"Ack... ugh... y-yeah... what she said..."

"That's great! You two have always been like two peas in a pod. Especially recently. I certainly can't think of a better match." 

"Thanks and all, but uh, real talk? It's a bit weird to hear coming from your mom."

"Well get used to it, sweetie." 

"This is all well and good, but it does present a certain problem." 

"What's that?" 

"How are we supposed to get grandchildren?!" 

" **DAD OH MY GOD!!!!!!** "

"Oh you know he's just joking." 

"Hehehe. You're way too easy, kitten." 

"Bea, say something!!! Help me out here!!"

Bea's face was buried in her hands, but not out of embarrassment. A few snickers escaped before she could contain her laughter no longer.

"PfffHAH. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!" 

She hadn't laughed this hard since the fish fountain. So hard tears were actually coming out of her eyes. Something about this whole situation just tickled her right to the core. A family breakfast like this, no strings attached. It made her feel like she had a real family of her own again. Like she could feel truly comfortable for once. It was genuinely the happiest she'd felt in quite some time. Yeah... she could definitely get used to this. She had to wipe away the tears before talking again.

"Aha... haha... wow. Do you two always torment your daughter like this?" 

"Yep." 

"We're pretty much monsters." 

"..."

A beaming smile on her lips, Bea draped her arm around Mae's shoulder and pulled her in close, cheek-to-cheek.

"Well I for one _cannot wait_ to find more ways to embarrass my new girlfriend in front of her parents. Hehe." 

"That's the spirit!" 

"Looks like you caught yourself a real keeper, Mae!" 

"I regret everything."


End file.
